her husband, reza khandan, says it goes deeper than that. >> ( translated ): the reason for my wife's arrest, i think, was that she insisted on going through with political prisoners' cases. in general, the idea was that they prevent the lawyers from going to court and following up on human rights cases. >> reporter: all of this has taken a heavy toll on the dissident's families. for sotoudeh, whose prison sentence was reduced to six years on appeal, her children are only allowed to visit their mother occasionally. >> ( translated ): on political prisoners, they make it very hard. in the first eight months that my wife was in prison, we did not have even one unrestricted visit. >> reporter: finally, the children, now five and 13, did see their mother, but only behind prison glass. >> ( translated ): in addition to cameras and microphones, there are guards who stand there and watch us and listen to every word of what the children tell their mother, all emotions and feelings. our children become a means of putting pressure on their mother. >> reporter: the iranian press office at the u.